The apparent contradiction is baffling to both the mining industry and the environmental movement.

On the one hand Premier Christy Clark's government says it is devoted to expanding the number of mines and is cheerleading one particularly controversial gold-copper mining project in B.C. despite two negative federal environmental reviews.

On the other hand, Victoria is opposing a similar gold-copper project even though it obtained a positive provincial environmental assessment.

Is the different approach to the two Vancouver companies, favoured son Taseko Mines Ltd. and smaller and seemingly out-of-favour Pacific Booker Minerals Inc., about politics? Or perhaps about the company and its backers? Does the size and location of the project, and the implications on fisheries, nearby communities and aboriginal claims, play a role? "It certainly is a head scratcher," said Jessica Clogg, executive director and senior counsel at West Coast Environmental Law.

Zoë Younger, the Mining Association of B.C.'s vice-president of corporate affairs, said her organization isn't taking a position on either proposal. But she expressed concern with the way the government handled the Pacific Booker decision.

"When you have things that don't seem to be consistent, one with the other, it creates questions in the investment community - they look at that and say, is British Columbia the best place to invest my dollars? Is it the most stable regulatory environment?" While both are open-pit proposals on low-grade ore bodies discovered in the 1960s, there are lots of differences in the pedigree and characteristics of Taseko's New Prosperity gold-copper project, 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, and Pacific Booker's gold-copper play, 65 kilometres northeast of Smithers.

Taseko's original Prosperity mine got the go-ahead from the B.C. government in early 2010 after a provincial review said economic benefits trumped a determination that the project would have a "significant" environmental impact due to Taseko's plan to turn Fish Lake into a tailings dump.

But federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice nixed Taseko's project later that year, noting that a federal review was "scathing" in its assessment. However, he invited the company to try again and, in October, a federal panel took a second look at a revised plan that proposed to save Fish Lake by locating the tailings dump 2.5 kilometres upstream.

That panel concluded once again that there would be a "significant" environmental impact, despite Taseko's modifications. The federal cabinet is reviewing the report and is under pressure from the company and the Clark government to approve it.

Pacific Booker, meanwhile, had its application shot down by the Clark government last year even though the province's own Environmental Assessment Office concluded in a report that the project "would not result in any significant adverse effects with the successful implementation of mitigation measures and conditions."

Terry Lake and Rich Coleman, then ministers of the environment and mines respectively, denied the mine's certificate in September 2012 after the EAO's executive director advised them to focus on the more troubling aspects of the proposal. The company, which would still have to go through a separate federal review before beginning operations, challenged the decision, saying it was unfair to refuse the proposal without giving the company a chance to challenge those findings.

That led to the B.C. Supreme Court ruling last month that Pacific Booker indeed had a valid complaint. The 2012 decision was quashed and the company was told it could submit a new application for reconsideration.

But Mines Minister Bill Bennett said in December there's no contradiction in how the two companies are being treated. "It is a different circumstance," he said of the Pacific Booker proposal. "It is very close to a very important salmon-spawning water. Morrison Lake leads into the Babine and is one of the top salmon-spawning waters of northern British Columbia."

Bennett is correct that below the surface the projects, as well as the companies and their leaders, are different. The adjacent table compares the projects.

Hallbauer is a professional engineer and a charter member of the B.C. business establishment, and the $2.2 million he earned in salary, stock options and other benefits put him 72nd in Business in Vancouver magazine's Top 100 earners for 2012. Among his career milestones: The onetime chairman of the B.C. Mining Association was named in 2010 the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

THE POLITICS

Hallbauer, directly and through his company, is a generous contributor to Premier Christy Clark's Liberal party. Together both have contributed $110,000 to support the Liberals since late 2009, according to the Elections B.C. database.

Those contributions included Hallbauer's $5,000 campaign donation earlier this year to Mines Minister Bill Bennett, who went to Ottawa this month to lobby the federal government to approve the New Prosperity Mine.

(Bennett said that he wasn't even aware of the company's contributions to the party, though he was aware of the $5,000 donation. "All I can say to the public is that there isn't any amount of money that would get me to do something in politics that I don't believe in.")

THE COMPANIES

Government regulators naturally want to know if companies have the financial heft to deliver on their often-expensive promises to meet demands to beef up environmental protection.

And it's also comforting to know a company is likely the company to be around for the post-production cleanup.

In terms of corporate heft, Taseko comes out ahead.

In the third quarter ending Sept. 30, 2013, the company earned $19.5 million on revenues of $67 million from the 75-per-cent-owned Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine north of Williams Lake in south-central B.C. It also has two other B.C. properties at the exploration stage.

The company had 192.8 million common shares outstanding by the end of September, so with Tuesday's close of $2.04 a share the market has concluded the company is worth about $393 million.

THE PROJECTS

Both companies say their projects will create hundreds of permanent jobs, contribute millions of dollars annually to the provincial and federal treasuries, and over more than two decades add significantly to Canada's overall wealth.

While direct comparisons are challenging because companies appear to use different measurement methodologies, one thing is clear: Taseko's is a much bigger project.

Taseko's project will support 550 direct and permanent jobs each year of its 20-year life. Miners will be exploiting a deposit with estimated "proven and provable" reserves totalling 7.7 million ounces of gold and 3.6 billion pounds of copper.

SALMON EEFFECTS

While First Nations opposed to Taseko's plans warned of potential damage to nearby salmon and salmon habitat, the federal government maintained during panel hearings that the Taseko River's salmon run was "very small." The October 2013 federal panel concluded that Taseko's "proposed compensation elements would likely increase salmon habitat and that there would be no loss of salmon fishing opportunities for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples."

FIRST NATIONS

The Taseko mining project impacts the Tsilhqot'in and Secwepemc First Nations, with the mine site located in Tsilhqot'in traditional territory, according to the latest federal panel report. The Secwepemc traditional territory includes the eastern portion of the transmission line corridor, along with part of the mine site. First Nations have maintained one of the most aggressive anti-development political and media campaigns in the province over several years, and Bennett acknowledged Thursday that opposition may not ever change.

LOCAL SUPPORT

All of the largest municipalities in the Cariboo officially support the project - Quesnel, Williams Lake, 100 Mile House, and as well, the Cariboo Regional District, according to Taseko's Brian Battison.

Pacific Booker Minerals Inc. Morrison property

THE PEOPLE

Pacific Booker CEO John Plourde has been in the business about as long as Hallbauer, but his 30 years is in "investor relations" rather than specifically the mining business, according to his company biography. And he doesn't quite have Hallbauer's profile in the business community, getting a fraction of the media coverage during his career.

Plourde's estimated $528,176 in compensation in 2013, made up of a $132,000 salary plus stock options as calculated by Business Week magazine, would need to triple to make it into the bottom of BIV's Top 100 list.

THE POLITICS

Elections B.C. shows no recent contributions from Plourde or chairman William G. Deeks, while Pacific Booker donated less than $2,000 to the Liberals during the 2010-12 period.

THE COMPANIES

Pacific Booker has only the Morrison Lake project, and its most recent unaudited financial statement for the six months ending July 31, 2013, showed a net loss of just under $1.9 million for the period. The company, with no revenue-generating assets and 12,356,539 shares, has a market value of less a quarter of Taseko's - around $83 million based on Tuesday's close of $6.74.

The Lake-Coleman letter made clear the government is concerned about Pacific Booker's financial status, noting that taxpayers could be on the hook if the company "is unable to resource long-term closure plans."

THE PROJECTS

Pacific Booker says its mine would support 251 jobs annually over its 21-year life. The company estimates its "proven and probable" reserves stand at 658,090 ounces of gold, 1.37 billion pounds of copper, and 10 million pounds of molybdenum.

SALMONS EFFECT

The Pacific Booker project is next to Morrison Lake, part of the Skeena River headwaters where a genetically unique sockeye population is located on one of B.C.'s top salmon-bearing rivers. The sockeye "could be impacted" if Pacific Booker's plans to protect the lake are unsuccessful, the provincial government told the company in 2012.

FIRST NATION

In his letter to Pacific Booker, then B.C. environment minister Terry Lake said the Gitxsan, Gitanyow and Lake Babine nations all oppose the project, and the Lake Babine First Nation in particular has a "moderate to strong prima facie case for aboriginal title."